DrChika

Chika Ejikeugwu (PhD, 2017, UNIZIK, Nigeria) is a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Stiftung in Germany. Dr. Chika Ejikeugwu is currently a Research Fellow at the Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH-UFZ, Leipzig, Germany, where he is working on "the soilRESIST project to investigate the effects of antibiotic mixtures on soil microbiomes." He founded Africa's Number 1 Microbiology website, www.MicrobiologyClass.net. Dr. Chika Ejikeugwu was a DAAD postdoctoral fellow at Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Berlin, Germany (2021) and a MIF Postdoctoral Fellow at Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan (2018). In 2021, he was awarded the Young Investigator Award on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) by Institute Mérieux in France. Dr. Chika Ejikeugwu is a member of the Global Young Academy in Germany, and a member of other professional (microbiology) societies including Applied Microbiology International (AMI), European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), Nigerian Society for Microbiology (NSM) and American Society for Microbiology (ASM). He holds a doctorate degree in Pharmaceutical Microbiology and Biotechnology. Dr. Chika Ejikeugwu is a Senior Lecturer & Researcher at Enugu State University of Science & Technology (ESUT), Nigeria where he mentors undergraduate and postgraduate students on microbiology & other aspects of life. He has a flair for teaching, research and community service.

BETA-LACTAMASE: an important resistance mechanism in bacteria

Beta-lactamases are enzymes secreted by both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, and which have the ability to hydrolyze (breakdown) beta-lactam antibiotics. Beta-lactamases are responsible for bacterial resistance to broad class of-beta-lactam antibiotics, including the penicillins, cephalosporins and carbapenems. They provide antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria by breaking the antibiotic structure, thereby leaving a molecule

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Antibiotic Resistance / Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) & Antibiogram, Pharmaceutical Microbiology, ,

MULTIDRUG RESISTANT BACTERIA (MDRB)

The introduction of antibiotics into clinical medicine for the treatment of infectious diseases heralded an era of one of the most significant breakthrough in medicine – since most infectious diseases that caused morbidity and mortality in the human race was drastically reduced and contained with antibiotics (the magic bullets). Particularly, penicillin was the first antibiotic

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Antibiotic Resistance / Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) & Antibiogram, Pharmaceutical Microbiology, , , , ,

FACTORS THAT AFFECT TRANSMISSION OF MALARIA

Environmental factors greatly enhances the spread and transmission of malaria because these climatic factors which are more prone in one part of the world than the other helps the female Anopheles mosquito (that harbours the Plasmodium parasite) to thrive and multiply successfully. The spread of malaria infection in a given population is controlled and affected

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Public Health & Parasitic Diseases (Parasitology), ,

MUTATION

Mutation is a change in the genetic make-up (or DNA) of an organism.It is an inheritable alteration in the nucleotide sequence (or genome base sequence) of a living organism. Mutation can occur in both plant and animal cells, and it can be spontaneous (i.e. natural), prompted (or artificial), or adaptive in nature. When mutation occurs,

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Biotechnology, Molecular Microbiology, , , , ,

GENTAMICIN

Gentamicin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic. Aminoglycosides are antibiotics that inhibit protein synthesis like the tetracyclines, and they also bind to the 30S ribosomal subunit of the bacterial ribosome. Other examples of aminoglycosides include kanamycin, tobramycin, netilmicin, spectinomycin, amikacin, neomycin and streptomycin. Streptomycin (which is naturally synthesized by the actinomycetes bacterium, Streptomyces griseus)is a unique aminoglycoside

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Antimicrobial Agents & Antibiotics, Pharmaceutical Microbiology, ,

CIPROFLOXACIN

Ciprofloxacin is a fluoroquinolone antibiotic that is derived from the earlier quinolones. Nalidixic acid is a typical example of a quinolone; and both the quinolones and fluoroquinolones are bacterial DNA replication inhibitors. But antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone family have broader activity than the quinolones. Other examples of fluoroquinolones include ofloxacin, norfloxacin, sparfloxacin, lomefloxacin and levofloxacin.

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Antimicrobial Agents & Antibiotics, Pharmaceutical Microbiology, ,

MINIMUM INHIBITORY CONCENTRATION (MIC)

Antimicrobial susceptibility tests are used to determine which specific antibiotics or antimicrobial agents a particular pathogenic bacterium or fungus is sensitive to; and susceptibility tests can guide the physician in drug choice and dosage especially for difficult-to-treat infections. The results of antimicrobial susceptibility tests or studies are commonly reported as the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC),

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Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) & Antibiogram, Pharmaceutical Microbiology, , ,